Thursday, May 31, 2012

Fun and cute! That's how I describe this card! I love this card!!!! I saw a card similar to this on Stampin' Connection, a demonstrator only website. It's so creative!! I used a new set called Betsy's Blossom and this is actually supposed to be a flower, but how super inventive to use it for a tree!!!! So sweet!!!!! I stamped 3 of them and punched them out in different size circles. Then I used what else but dimensionals to add some lift to them!

I love the button with the bakers twine on the side. It just adds to the fun! This is my swap for tonight's demonstrator meeting. I look forward to these nights every month. I love getting together with some of the most creative, fun demonstrators that I know! If you'd like to join our fun group think about signing up, with the new starter kit and a brand new catalog coming out it's the BEST time to sign up!!! Dont forget TODAY is the last day to get any retiring products. Today is the last day of the 2011-2012 catalog!!!!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

I got a lot done yesterday, but I can't show you it until tomorrow :) Tomorrow is our demo meeting and I worked on my swaps and 3 minute demo. While I was working Logan asked if he could make a birthday card for Dan, his birthday is next week. So I gave him some scraps from previous classes and let him do is own thing. As long as he didn't break anything I pretty much gave him free range, he even knows how to do the big shot by himself! So here's what he created! This card makes my heart so happy!!!! Logan wrote everything by himself and sounded out and spelled words. I might be a little biased but for a 5 year old I think it's pretty good. Here's what the card says: "I love you dad, you are the oldest, happy birthday, you are turning 34 just to remind you" Doesn't that just make you smile!!!!!! LOVE IT!!!!!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

I hope that your Memorial Day was a good one. We spent most of the day cleaning out our bedroom, and I did some cleaning in my stamp room. Our bedroom is now much more organized! Still slightly cluttered but it's organized clutter now :) But while cleaning my stamp room I came across some unfinished make and take packages from Leadership in January. I thought for today's post I'd whip up one of those samples for you. This isn't the card SU would have us make, I modified it a little. Still super cute, and super fun though don't you think?

I love the colors on this card. They all just 'pop' and go together so nicely! I embossed the greeting in clear embossing powder. It gives it a nice tone on tone look and I love the look of embossing. I love the glossiness and the texture of it! I used my color spritzer tool to add some splatter on the label behind the flower. It's subtle but it really makes a difference in the card without it. LOTS to do this week! You know how it is, your to do list is longer than the hours in the day, plus it's the first week of summer vacation for Logan-wish me luck!

Monday, May 28, 2012

I didn't get to do any stamping this weekend. It was jam packed with activities but I did get this little guy made. He's cute right? This is another find from Pintrest, a shark watermelon! Here's the link to the tutorial on him. Anyway it's a short and sweet post today. So enjoy the pictures of my watermelon friend and I'll be back tomorrow with a stamping project.

Friday, May 25, 2012

In between working on my 2011 album, which I'm happy to say is done! Well pretty close. I still have to make a few minor adjustments but for the most part it's done. So this weekend I'll send that to print and this little swatchbook that I did for Dan. The idea for this book came from, yes you guessed it, Heather Summers! She showed an album like this and I thought how adorable would that be in a swatchbook for Father's Day!!! So I'm sending this off to print and when it get it Logan and Megan will help finish it. The swatch book is 26 pages, I'm just showing a few today. This is the cover. I kept this book very simple, I wanted the focus to be on what Logan and Megan do and not what My Digital Studio can do.

On each page is a question for Logan and Megan to answer. I'm thinking since Megan is 18 months old Logan will do most of the answering, but there are some pages in here just for Megan too. Logan is just learning to spell and read so this should be fun to see what he puts down :)

Some of the other questions in the book are: What is Daddy's favorite food? What makes Daddy smile? How strong is Daddy? How do you know Daddy loves you? What is Daddy's favorite thing to do with you? I love Daddy because.... Why does Daddy love Mommy? and What's Daddy good at?

On the back of each question is either a poem, yes I wrote them and no I'm not a poet nor do I claim to be. But they're cute and fun for the book, or there's space for Logan and Megan to draw pictures. Some spaces are for Logan to draw some are for Megan, who's just beginning her love for crayons :)

OPPS just notices a huge spelling error on this page! Clearly I need to go back and edit a few of the pages :) It's supposed to say "draw a picture of you and daddy playing" I'll get that fixed before printing :) Though I'm a horrible speller, my biggest problem is always when I spell the wrong word correctly. Spell check doesn't pick up on that :)

This is the back of the book. The two of them in the park, though we did get some cute pictures of Dan playing with them at the park last weekend so maybe I'll switch it out for one of those.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Today my little boy graduates from Kindergarten. In honor of this special occasion I thought he needed a super cute, fun card. I saw a card similar to to this on Pintrest. They made a life size (well maybe not life size but card size) owl card. I don't know how they did it but I'll tell you how I did it. I used a little help from MDS! To do the owl, I opened an 8.5x11 scrapbook page and used the owl punch and made him about 4.25x5.5, you know card size. Then I color filled it with white and matted it in black. That way I just get the outline of the owl punch. I printed it and used it as a template for my owl. Easy peasy right!

Of course after it was printed I realized that I should have printed his vest too! But since I'm a lazy stamper I just hand cut it. The rest of the owl is done with punches. The beak is the pennant punch, the eyes are the 3/4 and 1/2 circle punches and his wings are the biggest scallop punch. The hat was done by hand (or by paper cutter actually). I couldn't get it to look right with punches so I gave up and did it by hand. I stamped the Happy Graduation from Teeny Tiny Wishes and then rolled it up. So cute! I just love this little guy!!!!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Yesterday I showed you the sweet little school bus box. Today is what goes in that box. Thanks to My Digital Studio and Heather Summers online MDS class I was able to whip up these little note cards in no time! The cards themselves when folded are about 2 3/4 x 2 3/4. The finished envelopes are 3 x 3. I just love them!!!

Since this is Logan's last week of school and I was in a little rush to get these done I sent the jpeg's of the projects to Staples to have printed. I was really pleased with the quality but I would still use the Stampin' Up! printing options first. So in the school bus in a dozen of these little cards. They're perfect for a Kindergarten teacher, the crayons are super cute and they're a great size for sending a quick note to a student or fellow teacher.

Here's how the cards were laid out in MDS. It's so fun, you can get 6 to a sheet so it's really cost effective too!

This is the page with the envelopes. You can only get 2 to a page with this one but still very cost effective. The squares for the envelopes are about 5x5, slightly larger. Then I used my diagonal simply scored tool to make the envelopes. I scored it at 2 1/8 on all sides (I think), it's close that measurement, but you might have to experiment a little. I just love this little project I hope you've enjoyed the past couple days of it too!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

I had trouble deciding what to show you first today, the box or what goes in the box. I thought it would be cuter to show you the box today and the sweet little gift inside the box tomorrow. I made Logan's teacher a little gift and needed a cute fun box to put the gift in. So I thought and thought and thought and decided that school buses go with schools that go with teachers. So Sunday afternoon I began the quest to make a school bus box. I'm so pleased with the results and I just love it!!!!

For the box I made two boxes one for the 'engine' and one for the 'kids' I had Logan draw on the windows and he did a great job, with lots of kids and even a bus driver. I wanted the wheels to be pretty sturdy, since the entire box would be resting on them. So I used the circles #2 die and cut them out of cardboard, then just glued the cardstock on top to look like tires.

The box opens at the top and you can get a little glimpse of what inside, I'll have more details tomorrow about what's inside the box :) For the box itself here's the dimensions. Engine: 7 1/2 x 5 1/4. On the 7 1/2 inch side score at 1 3/4, 3 1/2, 5 1/2, 7. On the 5 1/4 inch side score at 1 3/4 and 3 1/2. For the rest of the bus: 7 x 10 1/2. On the 7 inch side score at 1 3/4 and 5 1/4. On the 10 1/2 inch side score at 3 1/4, 8, 8 1/4, and 10. The box (minus the engine) is approximately 3 1/2 x 1 3/4, so it's a good size to hold fun gifts! Remember to check back tomorrow to see what goes in the bus!

Monday, May 21, 2012

I'm posting three cards today. These are the other 3 cards that my guests got to make at my So Long Farewell Class on Saturday. The first was this one that I showed you Friday. I had intended on showing them to you one by one this week but yesterday I created a project that is so cute I have to show it to you sooner rather than later, so we'll do the cards today, then check back bright and early tomorrow for part one (yes it's so cute, it needs 2 parts!). The first card I just love. It has 3 of my favorite retiring things: Poppy Parade cardstock/ink I loved that color! Flower Fest and Short and Sweet Stamp Sets. Of all the stamp sets on the retiring list these two I was most sad to see go. I'm still debating about getting rid of my short and sweet set. I love it so much!!! I don't typically keep stamp sets, in my 9 years as a demo I think I've kept 5 or 6 sets, so I have to really LOVE it, this set I LOVE!

The next card is a fun folding one. We used the Movers and Shapers die on this one, I'll miss that too, I didn't use it much but when I did, I love the cards that were created. This one is so fun and I love the colors, Daffodil Delight and Cherry Cobbler. The red and yellow just coordinate so well and just make me happy!

The last card is super cute though the camera doesn't quite capture the entire cuteness of it. The front is a little window card. Inside is the stamped tree from Trendy Trees. This set was another go to set for masculine cards, the trees always seemed to work for that, now what will I use :( Oh wait I have a fantastic brand new catalog full of amazing stamp sets...I'll just use one of those!!! :)

Friday, May 18, 2012

Tomorrow is my final class with the 2011-2012 catalog. We're saying goodbye to some of our favorite stamp sets. I'm going to have big sneak peeks, big giveaways and lots of fun! This is one of the cards that they'll get to make tomorrow. I just love it! It's simple but stunning. The colors just make me so happy! I'm really going to miss this stamp set!!!! I just love this card. I saw a card similar to it on Pintrest, or maybe splitcoast. I can't remember now, AHHHH! This card is so stunning in person though. I'll have more to show you next week from my class as well as some hybrid MDS teacher gifts. Lots to do so this post is short and sweet!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

What a fun card this is. So many new products on it!! I'm not even sure where to start with it. Let's start with the stamp set, it's called Betty's Blossoms (I think). There's so many fun images in this stamp set. The flower is stamped in a new incolor called Primrose Petals. It's stamped off before I stamped it on the card. The bird is also stamped with a new in color, Raspberry Ripple. Both of these pinks are just so yummilicous! The wings on the bird is stamped in pretty in pink, but would have also looked great with the Primrose Petals.

Did you notice the ribbon too? Stitched grosgrain-I can't wait to get more colors of this!!!! I hope you enjoyed this fun sneak peak!! If you want to get a better look at the new In Colors and use some of the new products yourself, make sure you sign up for my New Catalog Kick Off Stamp Camp. The class is June 2, included with the class fee is supplies for 6 fantastic cards, a NEW CATALOG, snacks, door prizes, and our popular retired stamp set sale! For more information on this class and to sign up click here. Sign up by Sunday because the early bird price will only be available through Sunday after that it will increase!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

I have another MDS page for you today. I had planned on spending yesterday stamping but you know life got in the way. I ended up spending most of the day trying to recover my pictures from 2010 and 2011. I had them on saved on a USB drive, it was in my computer since you know I'm working on my 2011 book, when I put my laptop down the drive got caught and bent and then broke. I was miserable, that's two years of pictures lost!!!!! I was able to recover some of them from my computer but I'm still missing lots of pictures. Lesson here: back up your pictures in more than one place. UGGGHHH! Hopefully I'll able to recover the rest of them but in the meantime, I'm so thankful that I'm almost done with my 2011 book, at least I'll have that! This page is a unique one. Normally I don't scrapbook myself. But in Heather Summers MDS class she put that challenge out to us and I'm glad I tried it. I had a good time doing this one!

Today I plan to get in some stamp therapy, perhaps with some new stuff too!!!!!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

I'm thrilled to report that as of last night I finished October in my 2011 scrapbook. If I keep up this pace I'll be done by the weekend! I'm so excited to see this book printed. I've mentioned it before but before MDS I didn't scrapbook (at least not well or often) so I'm sure you can image my excitement to finally finish an entire album!!!! The kindergarten page makes me happy. I love it. It's simple but fun! I love the pictures too, especially the one of Logan and his Dad walking to school, look how big his back pack is!?! The letters were done with punches and color filled them. I think that was the longest part on this page. That's probably why I love MDS so much. I'm an instant gradification kind of girl and with traditional scrapbooking I think it takes much longer to get to the finished result.

The next page is one from one of our park days during them suumer. I LOVE these colors!!! Just LOVE THEM!!! You just might see some cards with this color scheme :) I love the diamond border on this page and the taffeta ribbon! So FUN!!!

Monday, May 14, 2012

I hope you had a great Mother's Day. Aside from some whinny kids, some temper tantrums and the usual kid stuff mine was good. This week I'm hoping will be less eventful than last week. Last week, specifically Thursday and Friday were not a whole lot of fun. Thursday, Logan was supposed to read a book he wrote in his class to an assembly of the 4th grade students. 10 minutes before the assembly, either nerves or a little bug kicked in and he got sick. Poor kid, didn't get to read his book, and didn't feel good. He came home early and spent the rest of the day watching movies. Friday he seemed to feel better and went to school, I went to run a few errands on of them the gas station. Well when I got there to gas up I realized my gas cap was broken and I couldn't get it off. UGGGH! So I sped to my parents house, hoping that they hadn't gone out of town yet and my Dad helped get the gas cap off. Got another one and it should all be fine now. But I did get a tiny bit of crafting in on Friday. I made some chocolate truffles last week. The best truffles you'll ever have and they're so easy!!!!! I wanted a cute box to package them so here's what I came up with.

It's adorable right?!! Here's the dimensions for the box: 7x10 on the 7 inch side score at 1 1/4 and 5 3/4. On the 10 inch side score at 1 1/4, 4 1/2, 5 3/4, and 9. The box opens and closes like a pizza box the finished box is about 4 1/2 x 3 1/4 and 1 1/4 high. It's so cute! And fits 6 truffles perfectly!

My truffle recipe is no secret and they're really so easy. They're Oreo truffles and there's only 3 ingredients. Here's the recipe. I think you'll enjoy them :)

Friday, May 11, 2012

If yesterday's card wasn't my favorite then this one for sure is my favorite, but I don't know it's close one! If you didn't get a chance to see yesterday's card make sure you check it out. Today we'll wrap up my Pintrest inspired week. Here's the inspiration for today's card. I love the special folding involved in this card. I used the Label Framelits. I just love how it turned out!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!! For the flower I stamped and embossed the top flower, then I punched 2 more flowers and attached them all with dimensionals. There's serious lift on this card :)

The button is there to hold the card closed. You stick the right flap under the button and it holds it closed. Isn't that cute!?! You can see the flower and the dimension to it better in this picture. I love dimensionals. I think it's the only accessory that I use on every single card I make, well sometimes I don't but on 98% of my cards. Just ask my husband and kids about my love for dimensionals. We're forever picking up the little backs to them that get stuck to you from static then get tracked through the house. I find them in the weirdest places. :)

Here's a shot of the inside of the card. It's very hard to see but I stamped the flower again inside but in versamark. It's a subtle little touch that adds to the card. Isn't this a great Mother's Day card? Don't forget Mother's Day is this weekend. So in honor of Mother's day and before I go, I thought I share a quick story about my 5 year old son and Mother's Day. Last Mother's Day, Logan was busy working on a project, when I asked what he was doing he said "I'm making a Mother's Day gift. Guess who it's for?" I replied "Who??" Logan bursts out "DADDY!!!" Fast forward to this year, while watching the season finale of Amazing Race (we LOVE that show!!) they had a commercial for some Mother's Day jewelry. Logan leans over to his Dad and says "We should get Megan some of that." Gotta love that little boy!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

This card, as simple as it is might, just maybe be my favorite card from Pintrest week. It's inspired from this card. Originally when I pinned that card I had planned on making it in MDS, or even making it into a scrapbook page and I might still do it. I think it would be an adorable scrapbook page. But anyway, I thought instead of doing it all in MDS I'd do a hybrid card. So I printed my greeting in MDS. Then printed it out and punched and added the colors.

I used a Disney font for this card, I think it's so cute! For the hearts, I punched 5 of them along the border then punched 5 hearts out of the different colors of the rainbow (Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, and Pacific Point). I lined up the card how I wanted it then glued all my colored hearts down then put the top layer on. Easy peasy! I can't believe how much I just adore this card even without a single accessory!!!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Can I just say how much I'm enjoying this week! I like to think of myself as a talented stamper, but I'm not talented when it comes to creating my own ideas. I should be but I'm not great. I have my moments but usually some of my favorite cards are inspired from other cards or projects, then I just make them my own. Like today's card. Unfortunately today I don't have a link to the exact card. When it was pinned on Pintrest, it didn't have a link to the specific post just the blog. BUT the blog is well worth the visit. It's Teneale Williams. She's incredible! The detail and thought in all of her projects is just amazing. My card is very similar to hers. She used pink, I used purple instead and I added some spritz with the color spritzer but the card is pretty close to the same. She also had a different greeting on hers. I love this card!!! It's so pretty!!!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Pintrest week continues! I made so many fun cards yesterday I can't wait to show you! May means end of the school year here. When I saw this card on Pintrest I knew it would be perfect for Logan's teacher. I'll attach it to a fun teacher gift. Not quite sure what that is yet, but at least I have the card to go with it. Maybe I'll just make a stack of these apple cards for her-wouldn't that be cute? Since I don't have an apple die, which would be ideal for this card. I just drew my apple on some cardstock then cut it out. That's also how I did the white of the apple, the stem and the seeds. Just eyeballing it :)

The leaves were done with my 1 3/4 inch circle punch. There's not much else to mention on this card. I just love it and it surprisingly, even though I had to and cut everything didn't take long. Don't forget that we are down to just weeks of the current catalog, there's lots of stamps and accessories that are retiring. Make sure to get those things you want before they're gone. Also head over to

Sunday, May 6, 2012

I said a while ago that I wanted to do a Pintrest week. A week where all my projects were inspired from Pintrest. So welcome to the first (of what I'm sure will be many) Pintrest Inspired Week! The first card today was insprired by this lovely card. I just loved the idea and ran with supplies and stamps that were already on my desk. I'm a lazy stamper :) I found that I'm starting to love the simple cards almost or even a little more than the super complicated, time consuming ones. I've also found, that life just gets busier as you get older and as your kids get older.

I used the Summer Smooches DSP. It will be in the new catalog and I think it will be a favorite of mine, though I can't wait to see what else there is!!!! I'm going to post a little early today, I'm up anyway......impatiently awaiting the stroke of midnight, at which time I'll place an order and as a demonstrator I'll get my free copy of the new catalog sent to me with that order. See why I'm impatient! So as long as I'm up I thought I'd post early, then I don't have to worry about it!!!!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Yeah I'm totally going with that title. Pretty sure chipping isn't a word, but you know I think the dictionary has missed a lot of stamping terms. When I do a spell check, it often thinks that some of my terms are misspelled. Terms like VersaMark, Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, etc. So I'm going with paint chipping being a real word :) What is paint chipping? It's when you use paint chips on your cards. I'm really pleased with how these cards turned out.

When we go to home improvement stores I always stop by the paint section and pick up a few paint chips. I'm never really sure what to do with them, but I always save them. Someday maybe I'll actually purchase some paint and paint our bedroom, but that's not as much fun as stamping! So with the paint chips I cut them in strips of all different widths, though I don't think any of them are more than a quarter of an inch wide. I glued them to a white square piece of cardstock diagonally.

They look so cool don't they? I punched the flowers out of the paint chips too. The leaves are cardstock. I didn't have green paint chips :) The white cardstock is embossed and it's just a simple easy card! The greeting is from Upsy Daisy, I'm still so bummed that it's leaving. The greetings in Upsy Daisy are some of my all time favorite greetings. It might just be the hardest set that I'll say goodbye to this year!

I added a pearl to the center of the purple flower and a pink rhinestone to the center of the pink flower. I'm kind of hoping that since they came out with the large pearls that perhaps the new catalog will have large rhinestones.......how stinkin' awesome would that be!?!?! I'll know soon enough!!!! But anyway, next time your in your local home improvement store, grab some paint chips and craft away. They're actually great for crafting, they're a nice thick weight and they come in all colors :)

Thursday, May 3, 2012

I have a few more pages to show you from my 2011 album. I haven't worked on it much this week, I've actually been stamping like crazy this week---but I can't show you any of that yet :) I've been stamping and figuring my classes for the next 2 months. You'll see them eventually. Check out all my class details below. I'm super excited for both my classes, and have already had lots of people sign up so make sure you sign up soon!!!! The first page is so cute and all the elements are from the Grad Party download. I didn't think I needed this download--I don't know anyone graduating this year. But thanks to the online class of the amazing Heather Summers I was convinced that it was a download that I needed :) The pictures are from Logan's spring musical performance last year at his preschool. The next page is a layout completely copied from Heather's class. I NEVER do circle pictures, just never think about it :) Both pages are super fun and I love them both!!

I'd like to share with you my upcoming classes, remember to sign up soon! The cards are beautiful and fun for both classes. You won't be disappointed!!!

First up my So Long, Farewell class this month!

May 19-So Long,
Farewell!!! 10am at St. John's Cathedral

You'll make 4 cards using some of our favorite retiring stamps and
accessories. Don't miss this class, there will be HUGE give aways and lots of
sneak peaks. If you haven't been to a class recently you won't want to miss this
one! This class is $15 or FREE with a $35 order at the class!! Must RSVP by
May 15. Remember to bring
a friend who has never attended a class of mine and YOU and your friend will get
to make a FREE bonus card!!!!!!

Next, it's our New Catalog Kick Off Class!!! At the class you'll make 6 amazing cards using all new products!!!! You'll be one of the FIRST to get the new catalog!!!!! You'll get to shop our retired stamp set sale!!!! This year we'll have a special $5 table! YEP stamps for $5!!!!!! Don't miss this class!!! Sign up today-you must sign up online, early bird price, $20, runs through May 20, then it will increase to $25. The rest of the details are on the link, sign up today!!!

More exciting news!!! If
you've ever wanted to join the Stampin' Up! family now is the time! Stampin'
Up! has announced a new starter kit at a new lower price. For only $99 you can
create your own kit! You'll be able to choose $125 in products that YOU want!
You can choose anything from stamps, ink, paper, dies, accessories!!! You'll
also get $65 in business supplies for a total of $190 of product for only
$99! PLUS all the demo benefits that come with being a demonstrator! If you
have more questions please let me know, I'd love to talk with you about signing
up!!!

I know that's a lot of info, but it's all good! If you have questions on any of it please let me know.

About Me

Welcome to my blog. I am a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator since 2003. I love what I do! I love being able to set my hours and work from home. I love being creative and making cards and scrapbooks that bring so much joy to those around me. I hope you enjoy my blog, suggestions are always welcome!